When you have very young kids finding the time to workout can be a challenge. This is what I have found to work for me. I’m posting this in case someone else is in a similar situation.
Once I had children my usual lift after work routine went out the window. I have 2 hours after getting home to eat and play with the kids before they go to bed. This is something that i’m not willing to give up. So I lifted after their bedtime. Most of us with young kids that are still waking up at night know that in the evening from 8-bed your energy level is low. So I plowed ahead lifting at 8 but my results were flat.
So I came up with the following. I am seeing gains again in both my body weight and lifted weight. The key to this is a slightly reduced volume (for me) and I take advantage of the weekend when the wife can watch the kids and the fact that deads seem to boost my energy considerably so i can do them at night while drained.
I do one main lift that is 5 reps ramping up to a max weight (so as many sets as it takes, usually 5). Followed by 2 higher (12 ish) rep supporting exercises that are 3-4 sets (depends how i feel).
Yes, this was probably blatantly obvious to some of you, but it took me some time to get it right for me. I also pull slightly more than I push, this is on purpose. There is a huge difference in the energy level and I feel I get much more out of this routine and will stick with it until the kids go to bed later or sleep better at night.
Saturday:
squats (main lift)
abs- weighted sit-ups on a decline bench(supporting)
low cable row (supporting)
Sunday
bench (main lift)
seated mil (supporting)
tri cable push down(supporting)
Wednesday
deads (or rackpulls)(main lift)
chins or pulldowns(supporting)
bicep (changes but usually curls) (supporting)
Rek I am in the same situation as you re: kids. I lift at night during the week, sometimes stupidly late at night, because we’re usually too busy on the weekends for me to get to the gym. Wanna know how I solved the tired/low-energy problem?
[quote]Ct. Rockula wrote:
24 hour gym…take an hour or so away from sleep…no need to change work outs.[/quote]
i lift at home so that isn’t the issue. The key point (for me) is the energy levels, after a long (6am-6 pm) workday and 2 hours with the kids i’m drained at 8. What does this translate to? well if i CAN squat 300lbs all I could manage was 260 and I got stuck there. With my new plan i’m back to the old numbers and beyond.
i also tried in the morning, but that didn’t work for me.
I have two very small kids. Working out at home in the early AM works for me. Then its done… you get home from work and the kids are sick… your done. Same thing for the weekends… there is allways some function to go to or some erand to run that I can’t be consistant on the weekends. I just get up early and bang it out during the week.
I have twin boys, that are 6 years old. Since they’ve been born, I’ve basically worked out in the mornings. On the weekends, I workout in the afternoons, based on the schedule with my wife.
I’m a big believer in morning workouts if you have a family. If you don’t get up and do it, then inevitably something will deter you from getting it done later in the day
[quote]ghost87 wrote:
I have twin boys, that are 6 years old. Since they’ve been born, I’ve basically worked out in the mornings. On the weekends, I workout in the afternoons, based on the schedule with my wife.
I’m a big believer in morning workouts if you have a family. If you don’t get up and do it, then inevitably something will deter you from getting it done later in the day[/quote]
I found my body just wasn’t ready for it. I could do cardio but for heavy weights I was tight.
I agree between working long hours and having 3 very young boys it can be tough to fit in workouts and also give them 100% effort, there is no gym open where I live before 9am so I have started training in the evenings around 8pm which is really bad for energy levels, I manage two workouts per week and have changed my routine to a low rep scheme to try to focus on strength levels and conditioning rather than gaining muscle. I try to run stairs twice a week at 6am but when you are awoken twice every night sleep is precious!
[quote]JamFly wrote:
I have started training in the evenings around 8pm which is really bad for energy levels[/quote]
I’ve been training around 8-9 lately as well, and also feel so unmotivated and tired, but still try to bust ass. “Life” in itself can be draining.[/quote]
Have you tried taking a stimulus? I got some Surge Workout Fuel but am not really aware of any kind of improvment when using it… so I’m going back to stong coffee.
[quote]JamFly wrote:
I have started training in the evenings around 8pm which is really bad for energy levels[/quote]
I’ve been training around 8-9 lately as well, and also feel so unmotivated and tired, but still try to bust ass. “Life” in itself can be draining.[/quote]
Have you tried taking a stimulus? I got some Surge Workout Fuel but am not really aware of any kind of improvment when using it… so I’m going back to stong coffee.[/quote]
I haven’t really. I mean, I’ve had a Low-Carb Monster pre-wo but that’s not ideal, as it messes with my stomach when grinding out reps. Spike would work to get me amped, but I doub’t I’d be able to sleep shortly thereafter. Coffee might work, althought I’m not a 'night-time coffee drinker" I might give it a shot.
Easy remedy to this problem, don’t have kids! They eat your food, they drain your wallet, they take up valuable time that could be spent lifting/having fun/more lifting…just my two cents
[quote]Rek wrote:
When you have very young kids finding the time to workout can be a challenge. This is what I have found to work for me. I’m posting this in case someone else is in a similar situation.
Once I had children my usual lift after work routine went out the window. I have 2 hours after getting home to eat and play with the kids before they go to bed. This is something that i’m not willing to give up. So I lifted after their bedtime. Most of us with young kids that are still waking up at night know that in the evening from 8-bed your energy level is low. So I plowed ahead lifting at 8 but my results were flat.
So I came up with the following. I am seeing gains again in both my body weight and lifted weight. The key to this is a slightly reduced volume (for me) and I take advantage of the weekend when the wife can watch the kids and the fact that deads seem to boost my energy considerably so i can do them at night while drained.
I do one main lift that is 5 reps ramping up to a max weight (so as many sets as it takes, usually 5). Followed by 2 higher (12 ish) rep supporting exercises that are 3-4 sets (depends how i feel).
Yes, this was probably blatantly obvious to some of you, but it took me some time to get it right for me. I also pull slightly more than I push, this is on purpose. There is a huge difference in the energy level and I feel I get much more out of this routine and will stick with it until the kids go to bed later or sleep better at night.
Saturday:
squats (main lift)
abs- weighted sit-ups on a decline bench(supporting)
low cable row (supporting)
Sunday
bench (main lift)
seated mil (supporting)
tri cable push down(supporting)
Wednesday
deads (or rackpulls)(main lift)
chins or pulldowns(supporting)
bicep (changes but usually curls) (supporting)
[/quote]
Sounds like you’re nearly running a 5/3/1 except for the weight/rep scheme, lol
[quote]JaseHxC wrote:
Easy remedy to this problem, don’t have kids! They eat your food, they drain your wallet, they take up valuable time that could be spent lifting/having fun/more lifting…just my two cents[/quote]
Great advice, you fucking moron. He already has kids, and obviously wanted to have kids. Your $0.02 is entirely worthless.
When our son was born 7 mths ago, I had to cutback on the gym time to help out at home and spend time with our precious one. He was colic for the first 2/3 mths which didn’t help. And wow, was that rough.
Before he was born I was going to the gym 3 or 4x a week doing splits, now it’s once a week full body workouts on saturday mornings. Lately, i added another day so it’s 2x a week on a Tue or Wed evening when he’s gone to sleep around 8 pm.
So right now I’m on 2x a week full body workouts consisting of push/pull/legs exercises and I think it’ll do for now.
I tried morning training for a few years and it didn’t work for me. Lucky for me they let me put a gym in the warehouse at work. I train at lunch and it’s way better for me from a training standpoint and for home life standpoint.